This invention relates generally to a poultry processing apparatus and more particularly to an apparatus for automatically splitting and cleaning poultry gizzards.
In order to prepare a poultry gizzard for human consumption, the gizzard must generally first be cut open so that it can be emptied of any ingest that has accumulated therein.
Ingest typically consists of undigested, non-food matter, such as sand and small stones, that were consumed by the poultry when it was alive. Automated machines and processes have been developed for performing this cutting and cleaning task so that safety hazards, labor costs, inconsistencies, and other undesirable aspects of manual processing can be mitigated. An example of such an automated machine is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,395,795 to Hazenbroek. Traditionally, such automated machines have employed a cleaving, straight blade or a rapidly rotating, circular blade into which a poultry gizzard is directed. In either case, the blade slices the gizzard in half, exposing the tightly packed ingest inside. In the case of larger gizzards, such as those of turkeys, a second blade may be employed for cutting the gizzard into fourths. The sliced gizzard portions are then conveyed along a pressurized water spray manifold that cleans the ingest out of the portions.
A problem commonly associated with automated gizzard cutting processes such as the one described above is that the blade that is employed to cut the gizzards is repeatedly brought into contact with the ingest contained in the gizzards. The sharpened edge of the blade therefore wears against stones and other hard, indigestible matter during the cutting process. The blade thus becomes dull very quickly, thereby necessitating frequent replacement of the blade. Such replacement is time-consuming, labor-intensive, and expensive. Moreover, after a gizzard has been cut by a circular blade, the ingest typically remains tightly packed inside the cut gizzard portions and can therefore be difficult to remove.
In view of the foregoing, it would be advantageous to provide an apparatus for efficiently cutting poultry gizzards without requiring the frequent replacement of a blade or blades. It would further be advantageous to provide such an apparatus that additionally loosens the ingest in the gizzards as a preparatory measure to enhance the efficacy of subsequent cleaning processes.